The Justice Department will pursue the death penalty for the White gunman who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo, NY supermarket in 2022, prosecutors said in a court filing Friday.
The decision marks the first time Attorney General Merrick Garland has authorized the use of the federal death penalty in a new case.
It follows moves earlier in Garland’s tenure to maintain death penalty recommendations—initially made in prior administrations—of the Boston Marathon bomber and Pittsburgh synagogue shooter. President Joe Biden had campaigned in 2020 against capital punishment.
US prosecutors told the Buffalo-based federal court that Payton Gendron, 20, is ...